Senate Republicans slam Trump's judge comments

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) rebuked Donald Trump on Monday for his recent comments that invoked the ethnic background of a federal judge to accuse the jurist of bias — calling those remarks “absolutely unacceptable.”

And another Senate Republican -- vocal anti-Trump Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska -- slammed the comments as racist, tweeting: "Saying someone can't do a specific job because of his or her race is the literal definition of 'racism.'"

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Trump has repeatedly argued that Judge Gonzalo Curiel, an Indiana native overseeing the lawsuit against Trump University, cannot be fair because of the presumptive nominee’s controversial proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Curiel is the son of Mexican immigrants, but was born in the United States.

“His statement that Judge Curiel could not rule fairly because of his Mexican heritage does not represent our American values,” Collins said in a statement on Monday. “Mr. Trump's comments demonstrate both a lack of respect for the judicial system and the principle of separation of powers.”

Trump’s remarks on Curiel — as well as his comments Sunday that a Muslim judge could also be biased because of the nominee’s call to ban immigrants of the Islamic faith from the United States — have triggered an uproar among Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stressed on Sunday that he “couldn’t disagree more” with Trump’s remarks, yet dodged when pressed whether those comments are racist.

Collins, a moderate who initially backed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the primary, has generally supported the party's nominee. But she has declined to explicitly support Trump so far this year, showing concern with the businessman's persistent personal attacks and calling on him to lay out a broader policy vision.

“Donald Trump has the opportunity to unite the party, but if he’s going to build that wall that he keeps talking about, he’s going to have to mend a lot of fences," Collins said in early May. "He’s going to have to stop with the gratuitous personal insults.”

Meanwhile, Sasse said in February that he would not vote for Trump and has kept up that position, even as most other Senate Republicans have grudgingly lined up behind their party's presumptive nominee.